Consumers are increasingly using kiosks to conduct business with enterprises. The kiosks come in a variety of sizes and are used for a variety of purposes. Some kiosks are drive through, such as fast food establishments, pharmacies, banks, and the like. Other kiosks are stationary located in gas stations, airlines, grocery stores, department stores, and the like.
In addition, what is considered a kiosk is evolving with today's technology. For example, digital signs now provide advertisements and mechanisms for users to interact with the displays to perform transactions. Such mechanisms include blue tooth communication, Near Field Communication (NFC), Quick Response (QR) code scanning, WiFi communication, and the like.
So, increasingly customers are engaging in a variety of technologies to automatically interact with enterprises to perform transactions. The transactions may result in purchases or may result in such things as registration for loyalty programs, enrolling in promotional events, requesting additional information for a good or service, and others. That is, the transactions via these kiosks are not strictly tied to purchases although some transactions are purchase related.
On particular type of kiosk that everyone is familiar with is the traditional Automated Teller Machine (ATM). These are situated these days at locations where consumers often need some cash. They also appear outside of enterprises, such as banks and grocery stores, or even inside stores and venues. In fact, ATM's are ever present these days in society.
Of particular concern with the ATM is security. The main security deterrents used in the industry are related to physical lighting located around the ATM's and cameras that are embedded in the machines and that may even surround the machines. This type of security still has drawbacks because thieves are getting smarter and have devices that can detect the passcode entered for ATM cards used by consumers at an ATM, or even duplicate the card. In fact, in crowded venues someone can simply look over the shoulder of a customer and detect a pass code being entered. Banks and financial institutions are always looking for ways to thwart these electronic and human eavesdroppers.